Chapter 37

CHAPTER 37 Everybody screamed. "You shot your own daughter! You shot your own daughter!" a high-pitched voice shrieked again and again. Dan couldn't tell if it was Amy's or Sinead's or Natalie's. His ears weren't working right. He could feel himself slipping toward the same kind of numb shock he'd fallen into after Lester's death. His vision blurred. No, he thought, fighting against the numbness, the darkness. That's what Isabel wants. She wants us shocked and stupid. So she can do anything she wants. Dan's eyes cleared a little. Now he could see Isabel, still pointing her gun. He could see Ian bent over Natalie, crumpled on the floor. It seemed to take superhuman strength, but Dan stumbled over to Ian and Natalie.

"The rest of us can take care of Natalie," Dan muttered to Ian. "You go get Jonah before Isabel shoots again." "That's right— and I will if you don't obey," Isabel said, her voice as cold and hard as metal. "This time it was just Natalie's foot. The next time—" She spun the gun around, pointing first at Amy's head, then at Alistair's chest, then at Natalie's back. "Who knows?" Gasping— possibly even sobbing— Ian stumbled away. "And don't take too long, or I will shoot again," Isabel threatened. Dan crouched by Natalie's side. He could see a hole in her fancy designer shoe. Blood was seeping out. At least it wasn't gushing. "It doesn't hurt," Natalie whispered. "I think the bullet just grazed my foot. I'm just pretending to be in pain so we can outsmart my mum." Dan decided not to tell Natalie that she was probably in shock, and that was why she hadn't felt any pain yet. But outsmarting Isabel— that

sounded like a good idea. Before Dan could think of a plan, he heard Hamilton call from behind him, "I'll go help Ian get Jonah. It'll be faster that way." "No!" Isabel screamed. She fired the gun again, but this time she aimed into the space between Hamilton and Ian, keeping Hamilton back. "I won't have you plotting together back there!" Amy dropped to her knees beside Dan. "Does Natalie need a tourniquet to stop the bleeding? Or just a bandage?" she said loudly. Under her breath she added in a whisper, "Got a plan?" Above them, Alistair took a step toward Isabel. He had his hands up, as if surrendering. Dan hoped so badly that Alistair had a plan, that his surrender was fake. But he teamed up with Isabel before, when my parents died, Dan thought. And now… Alistair was only asking a question. "Why?" Alistair asked Isabel. "You already have the serum. You won. Why do you have to torture

the rest of us? Why can't you just let us go?" "Oh, I have the serum, do I?" Isabel mocked, her face twisting hideously. "That's what the Madrigals want me to think. They want me falling for their tricks!" "Tricks?" Alistair repeated numbly. "Are you that much of a fool?" Isabel asked impatiently. "Or do you think that I am?" Isabel waved the gun again, but this time she seemed to be making a decision. Selecting someone. Selecting… Dan. Isabel pointed the gun directly at him. "Young master Cahill," she said, almost in that sticky-sweet voice that some grown-ups use with very small children. "You've proved to be quite a shining star of the Cahill family during this clue hunt. Tell me. What have you seen again and again in this silly Madrigal gauntlet? Located near so many locked doors… or doors the Madrigals intended to be locked before I intervened." Dan couldn't think. Not with the gun pointed at him, not with Isabel staring him right in the

eyes. Amy grabbed him around the shoulders, holding him up. Protecting him. "You mean the keypads," she said. Her voice trembled, but Dan could still hear the strength in it. He felt stronger himself. His mind cleared. "The keypads that five people had to touch," he said. "One from each branch." "Oh, that's right, the two of you work together," Isabel said mockingly. "You help each other. That's so touching." She winced, almost as if she regretted having no one beside her. But surely Dan was only imagining that. He blinked, and when he looked again, Isabel's gaze was as steely as ever. It was cowardly, but Dan was so glad that Amy didn't drop her arm from around his shoulders. "All those keypads, all along the way," Isabel mused. "All the safeguards. And then this large vial of supposed serum is just sitting here out in the open? Unprotected? Available to anyone?" "Th-the keypads before," Amy stammered. "The Madrigals thought that was enough to pro—"

Isabel shook the vial. "It's only colored water!" she screamed. "That's all that's in here!" Don't shoot, Dan thought. Please don't shoot. Somebody was sobbing behind him. Amy held on to Dan so tightly it hurt. He didn't care. Isabel moved the gun. It wasn't exactly that she'd stopped pointing it at Dan, but that she was ready to shoot anyone. "But those tricky Madrigals can't trick me," she said. "I have been studying this vial for hours. I discovered my children's treachery much sooner than they expected. So I had time. It's such thick glass… and those Madrigals do so love their fingerprint proof. They want fingerprint proof here, too. But just because five people trigger a secret, that doesn't mean all five get to keep it, now, do they?" Dimly, even with his brain swimming with terror, Dan could see what she meant. She thought the vial itself was like another keypad. If someone from each of the five Cahill branches